The Tour

ten / misunderstandings

"River, are you kidding me? Why are you here?" Will asked again, looking increasingly aggravated.

I stumbled over my words, shocked by his tone of voice. "I saw on the news... you were hurt- I needed to make sure that you were okay."

"Well, here I am, perfectly not okay. What do you want to do now, fix it all with one swish of your fame and glory wand? Just go back to surfing." He made a motion to fold his arms over his chest, but winced while doing so.

"Will, you are so much more important than surfing will ever be. You're my best friend, and I needed to see you. I still need to be here, if only to convince myself that you're not going to throw yourself over a cliff the second that you get out of here." I could see Rachel flinch as soon as the words left my mouth, but they were true.

"You may feel the need to be here, but I don't need you here. You're supposed to be surfing right now, and that's what you should be doing. I don't want you here fawning over me because you feel bad," Will said, staring me down again.

"I don't-"

"Just get out, River."

Noah shot me an apologetic look and Evan looked on in complete shock. With one final glance at Will's tight expression, I nodded and made my way out of the room. It hurt that he wanted everyone to be there with him except for me, but it was fair. I hadn't been around for the past few months. Maybe the only thing that I was good for was surfing.

I managed to call another Uber and make it back to my family's house in fifteen minutes. Everything was quiet and dark as I made my way back into my bedroom. A photo of the four of us stared back at me from my nightstand as I laid in my bed. Everytime I closed my eyes, more images flashed in front of them. Will underwater, Evan fishing him out covered in blood, Will and his angry stare, the pain on his parent's faces as they watched him. The minutes felt like hours, but eventually sleep came.

△▽△

Someone stood over me, shaking me slightly and calling my name. I squeezed my eyes shut as the bright sunlight streamed into them, attempting to cover my head with the covers.

"Riv, visiting hours start in an hour," Evan said in a slightly frustrated tone as I attempted to fall back asleep again.

"What?" I asked groggily.

"You need to go see Will. At least try to have a civilized conversation. His parents got home really late last night and are sleeping for a bit before heading to church to talk to the pastor. They won't be there for at least a few hours, so you don't have to worry about anyone else."

"Evan, he doesn't want me around. I think that he made that pretty clear."

He sighed and fell back onto the bed. "You guys are both being ridiculous. You need to realize that you didn't have to come rushing back the second you heard the news. I know that you felt like you had to, but to him it just feels embarrassing to have you rushing in here after he got hurt. He cares about you, and he wants you to pursue your own success and he doesn't want to get in the way of that. On the other hand, you're here because you care about him, and he should be smart enough to accept that and be grateful for it."

"I guess so," I conceded.

Evan sat up and gave me a slap on the back. "Alrighty, great talk. Now go take a shower, because he probably took a shower more recently than you and he's paralyzed in a hospital bed."

"You're not very nice."

"Have fun, Riv!" He cheered before exiting the room.

Thirty minutes later I had showered, changed, and was parking my own car in the visitor's lot of the hospital. By the time I reached his room, my hands were sweating and my heart rate slightly elevated. I knocked and peered around the door that was slightly ajar. A nurse was fiddling with Will's IV as he looked on, but the room was otherwise empty.

"You can come on in, sweetie. I'll be leaving in just a second," the nurse called when she saw me.

Will gave me an emotionless glance before going back to his intense job of watching the medications being administered. The nurse finished and made her way out of the room, shooting me a smile that I weakly returned.

As soon as she was gone, I turned to Will. "I'm sorry."

His stern expression finally cracked, displaying every ounce of exhaustion that he was feeling. "I'm sorry too."

"I get why you said that I should have stayed. Actually, I didn't, but Evan explained it to me so I'm a little clearer on it now. And I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable by coming," I gave him an apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry I was like that yesterday. It's just been a lot..." he trailed off, turning from me to look out the window. "I'm really happy you're here. I am. Knowing that I have this support is what I need right now. I just know how hard you've worked for your surfing, and I would never want you to lose that over me."

"It'd be worth it," I replied before making my way over to his bed and wrapping my arms around his chest. After a second I felt his arms pulling me close and I smiled, even though feeling the cords from the IV brought tears to my eyes.

"Nah, it wouldn't be worth it, because I would never want to get in the way of you and Enzo," he said dryly with a smile as I shook my head.

When we broke apart I brought one of the chairs parallel with the head of the bed, and we turned on the TV after sitting in silence for a few minutes. Will brought up The Office and we sat back contentedly. He, Noah, and Evan had gotten obsessed with the show towards the end of high school, and I had hated it at first. Everytime they turned it on, I complained. Unfortunately, I was outnumbered, and because I didn't feel like sitting in my room alone I watched it. Eventually, I came to love it just as much as them and watching it with Will in the hospital brought a sense of comfort.

As the credits played from our second episode of the morning, I spoke up. "Well, you want to hear the good news?"

"I mean I guess, if you got some," Will snorted out a slightly sarcastic, but still good-natured laugh.

"I already missed too much of the Portugal comp to go back, and the one in Maui doesn't start for another month from now. So I guess you're stuck with me for a while, because I don't even have a real job to entertain me."

Will laughed and shook his head. Hearing him laugh again, even if the sound wasn't nearly as frequent as before, brought a smile to my face. "I guess we're both pretty lucky then."

My babies :_)  I honestly have no idea if this was boring but I liked writing it so there's that. Hope you enjoyed, and see you soon!

p.s. I don't remember what time I posted my author's note with my mini-story about Dansby Swanson, but at some point I after that  watched that walk-off homer and it was perfect. What a guy.